It solely took three days after a photoshopped map displaying Listenbourg — a fictional nation haphazardly tacked onto the Iberian peninsula — appeared on social media for the joke to take the world by storm.

At first, it was nothing greater than a jab at Individuals and their supposed lack of awareness of geography.

“I’m certain Individuals don’t even know the identify of this nation,” Twitter person Gaspardo mentioned on 30 October, accompanying a map with a purple arrow pointing on the slab of land liberally added to Spain and Portugal and colored inexperienced, implying this was an EU member state.

One other person immediately replied: “Who doesn’t know Listenbourg?” — and the meme was born.

What occurred subsequent?

On the time of writing, the submit gathered greater than 95,000 likes and hundreds of shares on Twitter. 

In the meantime, some determined to take the trolling to a different degree, claiming the place was truly actual.

A high-definition satellite tv for pc map changed the unique one, whereas on Reddit, a channel rapidly sprung up, claiming that Listenbourg has its personal Components 1 Grand Prix and that its astronauts had been part of a mission to the Moon.

Others rapidly organised round what they declare is an “extreme-centre social gathering,” whose chief pledged to “enhance Listenbourg’s picture overseas,” whereas its alleged Ministry of Inside already provided to reply any questions concerning its id paperwork and visas.

One other submit on Twitter claimed that Listenbourg’s king Pay attention XV was, the truth is, the primary Solar King, going to battle in opposition to Louis XIV for the celebrated title in 1661.

A nationwide anthem along with a red-and-white flag sporting a golden eagle appeared on YouTube virtually instantaneously on a purportedly official Listenbourg authorities account.

The French Wikipedia entry for the Republic of Listenbourg, additional elaborating on its supposed historical past, has since been taken down.

Though all of it’s fictional, customers on social media will not be letting up, and massive, skilled accounts equivalent to that of Toulouse Soccer Membership bought totally concerned within the meme.

The Components 1 race joke has been picked up on and supported by Julien Febreau, a widely known French sports activities commentator for Canal+, and others, such because the French nationwide hockey crew, are making tongue-in-cheek calls for for Listenbourg to affix worldwide competitions.

Why did the joke turn out to be so massive in France and Europe?

Like many different European international locations and areas, France has been the sufferer of geographical unhealthy takes by US-based retailers.

Famously, in 2005, CNN mistakenly positioned Toulouse and Strasbourg in Switzerland and Germany.

CNN has additionally positioned the Ukrainian area of the Donbas in Pakistan — a complete continent away — after the battle first broke out within the Japanese European nation in 2014.

Slovakia and Slovenia get mistaken for one another so generally that the latter thought of redesigning its flag in 2004 to help in stopping any future mix-ups.

And after the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing suspects had been recognized as being of Chechen background, a slew of feedback from these mistaking Chechnya for the Czech Republic pressured the Czech ambassador to the US to make clear the distinction between the 2 locations publicly.

What are different well-known faux international locations?

Molvania is a major instance of one other fully made-up state created to focus on the lack of knowledge — and tact — in terms of less-commonly identified components of the world.

The imaginary post-Soviet state described because the “birthplace of the whooping cough” was an on-the-nose creation by a bunch of Australian comedians generally known as The D-Technology, revealed as a journey information so as to mock colonial and imperial approaches to the style.

Likewise, Yugoslovakia — a non-existent nation that got here out of a misnomer for each Yugoslavia and Slovakia — is used as a joking dismissal of these with a flawed information of central and jap Europe, getting an occasional chuckle out of the in-the-know on social media.

Borduria and Syldavia, each fictional Balkan international locations showing within the Adventures of Tintin graphic novel, additionally advantage a point out as locations used to focus on the stereotypes in regards to the southeastern components of the continent.

After which there may be Absurdistan, a time period utilized by Soviet dissidents to explain components or the entire USSR and its satellite tv for pc states, most notably by the previous Czech President Vaclav Havel.

Some unrecognised microstates additionally advantage inclusion, just like the tongue-in-cheek Kingdom of Wallachia within the Czech Republic, the results of an elaborate sensible joke in 1997.

A well known instance of comparable international locations contains Lithuania’s Republic of Užupis in Vilnius, the place the residents of the neighbourhood declared their very own state, along with a flag, forex, structure and president.

There’s additionally the Free Republic of Liberland, created by Czech politician and activist Vít Jedlička after the breakup of Yugoslavia.

Stated to be located on a parcel of land on the Danube between Croatia and Serbia, Liberland has its personal flag, anthem and structure, whereas Jedlička has been issuing citizenships and passports of the micronation since 2015.